Violent ethnic wars and world-wide people movement: implications for mental health nursing practice

In recent years, the world has been subjected to violent ethnic wars for autonomy and secession. Violent conflicts over national and international territorial boundaries are marked by a murderous mistrust, hatred and a perpetual life-and-death struggle in the present. For the mental health nurse, the world-wide persistent global circumstance of international catastrophe and increasing nationalism mediated through war is inextricably linked to practice as well as the significant health and lifestyle concerns of displaced people. Central to the discussion in this paper will be the mechanisms used by the mental health nurse to maintain empathy and clinical excellence during highly sensitive practice issues; in particular, the management of feelings of frustration, anger, guilt, loneliness and sleeplessness, and repeated mental images of suffering and human butchering, because these issues intersect with national and cultural identity. In rising to the challenges these issues present, mental health nursing must co-exist with critical world events and the globalisation of national identity in cultural diversity.